


Please...

by Kaggath



Category: Star Wars Legends - All Media Types
Genre: Other
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-03
Updated: 2019-01-03
Packaged: 2019-10-03 11:13:24
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17282978
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kaggath/pseuds/Kaggath





	Please...

For a big guy, Atrax moved swiftly, fluidly. Not what Bri’ataa would expect from a gardener, but then all those scars couldn’t come from harvesting trox lilies. He had a speckle of their pollen on his crooked knuckle, Bri’ataa noted, as he signed to them in what looked like very restrained Silent Claw.

“I don’t like people behind me.”

“Not even for a backrub?” Bri’ataa signed back, wiggling their tattooed brow. He had to want something. They always wanted something. Atrax was hard to figure out, but they would get there eventually. 

Maybe…if not a backrub…

Tilt of the head, expose the neck. Fingertips on the chest and heavy lids. Part the lips just so and—

Atrax took a step back with a gargling wretch.

“What did you drink?” he asked incredulously, the question rolling off his fingertips like a plague. Bri’ataa could feel their face souring.

“Nothing I couldn’t handle. Now come on, tell me what you want for these!” Bri’ataa cut the air with their hands, and they could see in Atrax’s eyes that it cut his heart just as violently. Why bother with the charade? Why make it so hard? Was it the thrill of the hunt? A relic of wherever he’d learned Silent Claw?

“I want you to be well.”

Bri’ataa was glad, deep down, he couldn’t hear the acidic scoff that escaped them. It burned even in their own ears.

“You know you don’t mean that, you must want me around for something. If you don’t want my credits and you don’t want me just…take them back! I don’t need them!” The words started small, but as Bri’ataa kept on, they became choppy, erratic. Flying from their body like blaster bolts, but Atrax didn’t flinch away.

“I want you to be well,” he repeated. “I want you for you.”

“Liar!” Bri’ataa signed before shoving him away. The floodgates broke, and they collapsed into themselves, sobbing. They couldn’t smell the damp soil smell of Atrax’s garden, or see him leave through their tears, but they heard him, deceptively quiet footsteps disappearing away. They always left. Always.

But then…more footsteps, a pair.

“Bri’ataa,” Fliis’s voice came from above. “Atrax is asking if he can hold you.”

Bri’ataa still couldn’t face him, face them, not with all this bare emotion pulling their strings. They didn’t look up, but through their heaving sobs…

“Please…”


End file.
